Book Review
Title: Girls of Paper and Fire (Girls of Paper and Fire #1)
Author: Natasha Ngan
Genre: YA/Fantasy/LGBT
Rating: ***
Review: It is obvious I am behind in reading these books but I finally decided to get into this series. I will also give the warning about violence and sexual assault as these trigger warnings were given in the opening of the book. I didn’t know anything about Girls of Paper and Fire except that it features an F/F romance before getting into this book. Before we even get into the novel we are given some important information. The first piece of information you will need to remember is the caste system which is split into; the paper caste – these people are fully human, the steel caste – who are partially endowed with animal-demon qualities and finally the moon caste – who are fully demon. Our protagonist Lei, comes from the paper caste and is fully human, and that leads us to the second piece of information, the birth-blessing. This is a ceremony performed immediately after birth in which a shaman conjures a pendent and inside is a single character that determines that child’s fate but it only opens at 18 and in less than six month Lei’s will open. Lei is unique among the paper caste as she was born with unusually coloured eyes as they are golden, we also learn that her mother was taken by the Demon King’s men and they have returned yet again. They have returned this time to take Lei as a Paper Girl for the Demon King. The Paper Girls are well known in Ikhara as they are eight concubines for the Demon King chosen from the paper caste, her mother was taken seven years ago and now Lei is on her way to the Hidden Palace of Han and while she tries to escape and is caught, twice, Lei takes some small comfort in the fact she might be able to find out what has happened to her mother.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, I was really interested in the world, the caste system and the idea of the Paper Girls and I was eager to see where the story took me. By the time Lei arrives at the hidden palace she has accepts that in order to keep her family safe, she must become one of the paper girls. However, it is not as easy as that as she has not been educated in the ways of the court and the eight Paper Girls have already been chosen but her golden eyes mean she is taken in straight away, but she is determined that this palace will never be home to her as long as she has a home to go back to. We are slowly introduced to the other eight Paper Girls and Blue takes an instant disliking to Lei despite them holding the same rank in this place. It is the job of Mistresses Eira and Himura to teach the girls everything they need to know for their year as Paper Girls before they are replaced by new ones the following year. I was shocked to learn that the King doesn’t even use the girls for the purpose of bearing an heir as inter-caste procreation isn’t allowed and they will be given medicines to stop them becoming pregnant. However, one person does catch Lei’s eye and that is the daughter of Lord and Lady Hanno, Wren. The Hanno clan is one of the highest in the Paper caste and is extremely close to the King and Wren is also a Steel, I believe as she is described as Cat-girl for a time and I know that she is going to be the love interest for Lei before it has even been hinted at.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, we witness Lei’s first month as a Paper Girl which isn’t great. While she does form some friendships with her maid Lill and two other girls Wren and Aoki, she ultimately doesn’t want to be there. At their unveiling ceremony before the King, Lei makes a fool of herself by literally falling on her face and this might just hinder her from being called and spell the end of her family. Over the course of the month the girl attend lessons for their roles after their year is up and Lei doesn’t seem to be progressing at all. When one of her dance lessons goes badly wrong, Wren is ordered to help Lei and Lei begins to feel things that she really shouldn’t for Wren especially after seeing her sneak out on night, Lei becomes extremely jealous of the imaginary person she believes that Wren is meeting and I am 100% sure I am right about Wren being the love interest. However, in this month Lei hasn’t been summoned by the King once while all the other girls have and if she seems to know if she doesn’t get called soon, the lives of her family could be in danger.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Lei is getting worried about not being chosen despite not wanting to be chosen as a bed mate for the King when a dinner is announced and Lei is going to be seated next to the King. As the dinner begins we witness a conversation between Lei and the King, where she has the confidence to say things that no other girl would but the King tells her he has been saving the best for last and the very next night, he summons her. This part of the conversation and the implied references behind it made me feel a little bit sick and after seeing how both Aoki and Chenna reacted upon returning from their night with the King, I am afraid of Lei. Before being taken to the King, Lei has a lesson with Zelle who teaches her the basics of sex and for a time Lei believes that she will be okay but when confronted with the King her panic becomes physical. The dinner goes well, but the king has a real temper although he does tell Lei that if her mother was brought there then she should check the pleasure houses as that is where she would be. By the time things move to the bedroom, Lei’s panic takes over as the King tries to take her and she flees. She is knocked unconscious and bound in isolation for a week due to her actions but she is lucky that she wasn’t killed and she knows when the King summons her again she won’t be able to refuse him or her life will be the forfeit. However, during her isolation we get her first scene with Wren who is unguarded in these moments as they talk. Lei brings up the fact she saw Wren sneaking out and Wren warns her she can’t speak about what she was doing and to forget she ever saw her. However, it is clear in this intimate scene that both Lei and Wren have feelings for each other but won’t act on them yet. By the time she returns to her lessons, Lei is still recovering but her teacher has a vision and babbled what seems like nonsense but to me seems like a prediction about the fire with Lei and how it will burn the palace to the ground.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, the King has been summoned away to deal with some rebels in the south giving Lei some precious time to herself. By the time he returns, the koyo festival has begun but Lei isn’t happy about his return, while on the outside it seems like she is improving even requesting another lesson with Zelle, it is a lie as she is actually looking for her mother who isn’t on the pleasure house list meaning she isn’t there. During the festival, Lei is faced with some harsh realities, the first is when Aoki tells her it has gotten better for her and that the King makes her feel special despite having bedded hundreds of women before her and she loses her temper a little. However, the moment she locks eyes on the King she swears that she won’t stop refusing and fighting him, that he will never have her as long as she lives. She also discovers that the older Paper Girl are suffering from the draining of the qi due to the constant use of enchantments to keep them young and beautiful which was rather gruesome to read about. The final thing she learns her is that Wren is up to something but she can’t tell Lei what it is and despite Wren confessing her feelings for Lei and almost kissing her, Lei pushes her away because she can’t risk the only family she has left, her duty to them has to come first. However, it isn’t long until both girls give into their attraction for one another and that comes after Wren makes a beautiful display for Lei’s mother and her own lost clan, the Xia. Despite this when an attack is launched on the King, Wren leads Lei and Aoki into a secret tunnel where she has to kill someone for them to escape and Lei realises that Wren isn’t just a warrior in name but in blood and action too meaning she hasn’t told her the truth. Given her emotional turmoil in the past few months, Lei has to walk away until Wren is ready to tell her everything.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the beginning of the end has begun as we learn Wren is part of a huge plot to assassinate the Demon King but she doesn’t believe that she will survive it. Lei decides in this moment that she is going to help no matter what and even tries to poison the King herself but her plan goes awry. When she is eventually summoned by the king again she has the poisonous herbs on her to do the deed but the King rapes her before she can carry it out and it is made worse when he tells her that he ordered the attack on her village and the death of her mother. While I am looking forward to the climax of the novel and the sequel, I do have to say that the trigger warning for sexual assault wasn’t really needed as nothing is explicitly shown and I personally felt that rape and sexual assault was used in a half assed way. Take Alice Sebold’s books as an example, rape is featured in The Lovely Bones but it is never explicitly stated you just follow Susie in the aftermath of the event and it is hauntingly beautiful and then you have her autobiographical book, Lucky where it is explicit. I think if you are going to use rape and sexual assault in a novel you should hide or censor the gory aspect of the act and it should be stated openly rather than leaving it up to interpretation. For example, in the scene with the King we assume he raped Lei as it is never stated clearly or shown that he did and some could see it as he just beat her for her defiance. If you are considering reading a book with these themes then I would direct anyone towards Alice Sebold as I felt Natasha Ngan didn’t do a good job of portraying the act itself.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, things are getting dangerous as the King’s suspicions rise and Wren is ordered away from the palace due to the death of her “mother”. As she won’t be there to kill the King, Lei has to take her place but the night of Moon Ball absolutely nothing goes to plan but Lei does manage to draw the King away from the others as he is using her father and Tien against her. Lei is quickly proven to be no match for the Demon King but Zelle comes to her aid, throwing a knife into the King’s eye before being killed, but she has given Lei the opportunity she needs to kill the King. After plunging the knife into the King’s throat it seems like it is all over for Lei when Wren and Kenzo arrive to save the day. Kenzo gives them the cover to escape with the help of a owl-form demon named Merrin. However, in the final scene we know a war is coming now as Lei opens her Birth-Blessing pendant to find the word flight inside which matches Wren’s name and the emotions she sparks in Lei, but we also learn that the King as survived and in the next book I think are going to be more dangerous than ever for Lei and Wren. Overall, I really enjoyed Girls of Paper and Fire despite the issues I had with how sexual assault and rape are used in the novel. I was also expecting a little more Lei, I assumed it might turn out that she was part demon or have an ability linked to fire in some way but neither of these things occurs which was very disappointing. I will definitely be reading the sequel I just hopes it provides a bit more than this first book did.
Buy It here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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